Description:

Lansky Meyer

Meyer Lansky tells his daughter that concerning his new oil well dividend checks, to “please inform me up to what month that was. Start the 1971 Oil Book ... "


Autograph Letter Signed “Love /Dad,” one page, 8.5” x 10.75”. [Tel-Aviv, Israel], January 7, 1971. On lightweight lined paper. To Meyer Lansky’s daughter Sandra, with original “Dan Hotel Tel Aviv” mailing envelope addressed by Lansky, plastic tape on verso. Fine condition.



In part, “I want to supplement a few things if you didn’t ship my order as yet. please include a few ties (blue) that feel and look like knit; pick out blue light colored ties and the red tie the rest you can split up among Bud [brother], Paul [brother] & Vinnie [husband]. I don’t remember whether I asked you to ship a light powder blue Jacket, if not, include it, also my black Jacket. I have blue and black socks: send the black & very dark gray also the dark blue … You go down to Lincoln Road to Dave Allens and buy ½ dozen shorts that I wear under bathing trunks you tell him it is for me he knows what I want … Tell me again about the star I will buy a wring [sic] from here; if I can pay the duty here I will pay it. Garfield called me New Years day he told me that he mailed the [oil wells dividend] checks. Please inform me up to what month that was. Start the 1971 Oil Book remove 1970 and place it in the Oil Book in my book case. How is everybodys health? How is Gary & David [her sons] doing in School? Have fun my love to all of you from both of us [Meyer and wife, Sandra’s stepmother] …”



Robert Lacey in “Little Man: Meyer Lansky and the Gangster Life” (Boston: Little, Brown & Company, 1991) writes, “In 1964, Meyer Lansky finally laid hands on a legitimate investment that made some money. He bought himself an oil well … Under the tutelage of [old friend Sam] Garfield, Meyer expanded his oil and gas holdings. The two men bought more Michigan leases together, and they extended into Ohio … He was scarcely an oil tycoon – and never an oil millionaire. But thanks to Sam Garfield, he was successful. His energy concessions brought him revenues in the $25,000-$30,000-a-year range … confirming the impression that he sought to convey, of a retired businessman, living on his investment … In 1964, Meyer’s old friend Doc Stacher had avoided the worst consequences of a conviction for tax evasion by consenting to deportation and going to Israel to live. In July 1970, Meyer Lansky decided not to wait for the conviction – or anything else … Lansky landed in Israel on July 27, 1970 … He wanted to stay in Israel – and he wanted to live there not as a visitor, but as an Israeli citizen.”



On December 7, 1970, exactly one month before he wrote the letter here offered, Lansky requested Israeli citizenship under Israel’s Law of Return which gives any Jew the right to be granted Israeli citizenship. However, it denies citizenship to a Jew “with a criminal past, likely to endanger the public welfare.” A week later, in an affidavit, Lansky stated that he retired from active business in 1959 and was living exclusively on dividends from his real estate and oil investments, and that his annual income was “roughly $60,000 (before taxes).” The checks Lansky mentions Sam sent him were dividend checks from the Watson Oil Wells.



In March 1971, two months after he wrote this letter, Lansky was charged with being involved in a conspiracy to skim from the Flamingo Hotel, his old Las Vegas venture with Bugsy Siegel. In May, Lansky’s U.S. passport was revoked and in September, his application for Israeli citizenship was denied. “Meyer Lansky v. the State of Israel” was heard before the Israeli Supreme Court and on September 11, 1972, the court ruled unanimously against Lansky. After trying to find refuge outside the United States, on November 7, 1972, Meyer Lansky returned to Miami and was promptly arrested by FBI agents aboard the plane.



In a 1988 interview with Robert Lacey, Anna Strasberg revealed that Meyer Lansky had phoned her husband, Lee Strasberg who was nominated for the 1975 Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for the role of Hyman Roth in “The Godfather, Part II.” With her husband’s knowledge, Anna listened in on the extension. Lansky said, “You did good.” Lee replied, “Thank you. I tried.” Lansky added, almost with a sense of humor according to Anna, “Now, why couldn’t you have made me more sympathetic? After all, I am a grandfather.”


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